Is Slow Content Making a Comeback?

With Halloween approaching, I’ve been thinking about one of my favourite spooky films, Coraline. It’s a beautiful example of stop-motion animation, with an astonishing amount of work going into the tiny details that make it memorable.

According to an Animation World Network article, the production involved more than 28 animators working simultaneously, with the team producing just 90 to 100 seconds of finished animation each week. Coraline’s little star sweater was even hand-knitted to scale using knitting needles as fine as human hair and magnifying glasses to complete each stitch. Talk about patience!

Now, I’m not suggesting a 700-word business blog deserves the same production schedule as Coraline. That would make for some interesting conversations with clients…

But it has got me thinking about how much we value time and care in creative work, especially when content marketers are increasingly encouraged to produce more content in less time.

Could slow content marketing actually be making a comeback?

How Long Does It Take to Write a Blog Post?

If you’ve ever Googled ‘how long does it take to write content’, you’ll know there’s no shortage of estimates.

Even the more specific question ‘how long does it take to write a 1,000-word article’ doesn’t have a straightforward answer—even writers cannot agree, and if you trawl through forums, you’ll see that it takes some writers over 5 hours and a few around 45 minutes!

Orbit Media’s 2026 blogging research found that the average blog post takes three hours and 20 minutes to write, down from four hours and 10 minutes in 2022.

But averages don’t tell us much about the actual content writing process.

Are we talking about a straightforward lifestyle article, or something requiring academic research, interviews and several rounds of fact-checking?

And does that time include the work before someone starts typing?

While we’re on the topic, it took Neil Gaiman over 10 years to write Coraline. He started writing in 1990 and the book was published in 2002. Yes, it’s a long time, but obviously worth it, as we’re still loving the store 20 years later.

What Happens When We Rush Content Creation?

As a freelance writer, I’ve worked on plenty of briefs where deadlines, word counts and keywords all need careful consideration. That’s part of the job, but I think problems arise when meeting those requirements takes priority over providing something genuinely useful.

One example comes from my work with Groove Pillows. When creating articles, we make a point of including relevant studies and checking the facts behind our claims, particularly when discussing topics where readers may be making decisions about their wellbeing.

That research takes time, but it helps readers understand the evidence and make up their own minds. We’ve also noticed improvements in blog traffic, although I wouldn’t claim the studies alone caused those results.

Interestingly, Orbit Media’s research also found that original research and formal human editing were associated with stronger reported blogging results. Sorry, AI-only bloggers!

Perhaps there’s something to be said for not taking shortcuts.

Does Slow Content Actually Perform Better?

The debate around quality vs quantity in content marketing isn’t new, and contrary to how it may seem, I don’t think spending longer on an article automatically makes it better.

You can spend eight hours writing something that still doesn’t answer the reader’s question. So, I’m not suggesting we abandon efficiency or charge clients for hours of unnecessary research.

But there’s a difference between removing repetitive work and removing the thinking itself.

When assessing whether that extra effort pays off, I’d consider:

• Are people finding the article through Google or AI search?
• Are readers sticking around or exploring other pages?
• Is it generating relevant enquiries or sales?
• Are other websites linking to it or people sharing it?
• Does it offer something genuinely useful that readers couldn’t easily find elsewhere?

Of course, not every article needs to tick every box. A useful informational blog might build trust long before it generates a lead, and I think that’s worth remembering when we’re measuring success.

Is It Time to Slow Down?

Now for the frustrating part—there’s no clear answer.

Perhaps the solution isn’t to make every article take longer, but to be more selective about where we save time, and to then spend more time on the more important elements.

Researching a claim, finding a firsthand perspective or properly editing a draft might not be the quickest route to getting a blog live, but those are often the things that make content worth reading.

Writers hate to hear it, but readers might spend only four minutes with an article. Even so, that doesn’t mean it should take four minutes to create!

If you’d like a little more thought and research behind your content, get in touch to see how I can help.